The opener of the European KZ and KZ2 Championship for the CRG colors on the Genk track was not a positive weekend. The expectations on the eve of the event were only partially confirmed in KZ2 by Jorge Pescador, who was competitive in every phase of the meeting, from qualifying to the Final. On the Spanish track, in fact, he set the 16th time out of 94 drivers in qualifying practice and then finished P6 in the ranking after Saturday’s Heat. His potential was even more evident on Sunday when he won the Super Heat which allowed him to start from P5 on the starting grid of the Final, where he then fought for the podium until a few laps to go, when he lost some positions in the fight with Albanese and Lindblad, finishing P7.
The balance of the weekend for Pescador is however positive, while Paavo Tonteri has much to complain in KZ2: after a bad qualifying for the traffic on the track (P55 in the general classification), despite an excellent pace in the qualifying races, was unable to go up beyond the 33rd place on the starting grid of the Final. His weekend ended with a 24th place outside the point zone.
Regarding KZ2 it must be said that some inexperience’s mistakes did not allow Andrea Bosetto to qualify for the Final, despite showing good potential, like Brandon Nilsson and Natalia Balbo who did not qualify as well. Trefilov of the Maranello team (with which CRG has a technical partnership) experienced a weekend as protagonist: after getting the pole posistion in qualifying practice, scored the 3rd place on the grid and an excellent 2nd place in the Final.
In the KZ top class, on the other hand, bad luck and some technical problems heavily influenced the weekend of the three CRG factory drivers. In qualifying practice the best was Viktor Gustafsson who got the 11th position, but then due to an off-track in the 2nd Heat and in the Super Heat, the Swede only qualified P22 in the starting grid of the Final, closing P19. Similar fate for Alex Irlando who did not score any points in the Final, finishing in P17. The balance for the CRG colors was partially saved by Jeremy Iglesias, who recovered very well, after a non-exceptional qualifying, to close the Final in the top ten. Unfortunately he was given a penalty for the front spoiler he was relegated to P11.
The second and final round of the Euro KZ and KZ2 is scheduled in Italy on the Cremona track and the whole team will be called to make up for the disadvantage.
CRG drivers’ post-race reactions
Jorge Pescador (KZ2): “The feeling with the chassis was very good right from free practice on this track and also as regards the TM engine, I have to say that we were at the top in all stages of the race. On Sunday in the Final I had the pace to get on the podium, but the struggle of the first laps paid off in the final when the chassis and engine dropped a bit. In any case we got points and we can aim to have a good race in Italy in the final round; we have shown that we can be competitive”.
Jeremy Iglesias (KZ): “Qualifying was not positive and in the KZ Heat, competing all together at such a high level, it was not easy to recover and not even to prepare the set up for Sunday in the best possible way. In any case, our performances were growing and were in line with the best in many phases of the weekend and in the Final I think I did a good race with a high pace from start to finish. We have to work on some details, both of the chassis and of the engine, which on this track did not work as we expected, but we are certainly not far off and soon we will be able to gather the results that the team deserves”.
